


In Country

by theskywasblue



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-27
Updated: 2011-04-27
Packaged: 2017-10-19 00:59:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/195144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theskywasblue/pseuds/theskywasblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He is a soldier at war</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Country

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "Chalk dust"

When Dean was minutes old, somewhere between his fifteenth and his twentieth breath, John made a promise to protect him, from anything and everything, long before he had any real awareness of what a monumental task it would be – that he would be a soldier at war with forces he couldn’t even imagine, let alone see.

But what else could he do? It was his son – squalling and red-faced with his tiny, _tiny_ hands balled into angry fists – and looking at him, John had felt two things absolutely – Love and Terror.

He had let those two emotions shape his whole life.

As he leaned over his son’s hospital bed, voice low, to tell Dean something that would change him, terrify him, maybe even ruin him, John thought for the first time that maybe – just maybe – he regretted it. Not the promise, because Dean was his _son_ \- they were both his sons and he bore all the responsibility for it; for Sam too – but the terror that had driven him to say so many things, make so many promises without thinking of the consequences.

Or worse yet, knowing the consequences exactly.

It was that same terror he felt humming fast and electric through his blood as he stepped away from Dean’s bedside into the hallway and wiped the last of the chalk dust from his fingertips.

-End-


End file.
